The present invention relates to a feeder wagon for mixing and dispensing animal feed, such as, but not limited to silage, straw, hay or a mixture of any of these ingredients with grain, cereal or other feed additives or supplements which may be liquid or solid.
Known diet feeders comprise a downwardly tapered container having a vertical mixing auger installed in center of the container. This type of diet feeder uses a feed outlet at the bottom of the container. Such a position of the feed outlet is not always desirable or convenient and additional lifting augers are required to elevate the feed.
Other known diet feeders have a long cylindrical or semi-cylindrical container mounted on a chassis with the longitudinal axis of the container oriented parallel to the direction of towing and a mixing shaft with mixing paddles mounted inside the container parallel to the longitudinal axis of the container. In such diet feeders, a feed outlet trough is usually mounted alongside the container, typically closer to the top of the container and the feed is elevated into the trough by the mixing shaft. A major drawback of such known diet feeders is that their diameter (i.e., the maximum dimension of the container transverse the longitudinal axis) is limited, as it cannot be too large to enable normal towing or maneuvering of the diet feeder. Accordingly, the mixing capacity of such a diet feeder is restricted.
One object of the invention is to mitigate the above disadvantages to provide a diet feeder in which the feed can be dispensed via an elevated chute and having a greater mixing capacity than known diet feeders.